Yosemite.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Desi ko Pardesi chipkaya

A major fiasco happened within the Maharashtra government recently. A report on the state of poverty in Maharashtra was published by a research team. The front page of the report showed pictures of such horribly malnourished kids that it wasn't funny anymore. It was like they got a bare skeleton and covered it up with tight ragged leather to substitute for skin. The entire government was shocked, especially the chief minister. After some investigation it turned out that the dumbasses had just picked up some pics of malnourished African kids for their report. After some embarassing apologies it was resolved and the copies of the report were withdrawn.
It kinda reminds me of another fiasco that happened in my ex-company. After the tsunami hit the Indian continent in 2004 I urged my ex-company to donate to the relief efforts. I told them that there are seriously legitimate, minimal overhead organizations like AID, Asha, etc. who will ensure that the money will be utilized most efficiently. My ex-CEO agreed to donate 100K Dollars (yes $100,000) because the company was doing quite well at that time; a great gesture nevertheless. But they decided to shun my suggestions and donated to some "Human-Relief" organization. I had never heard of it. But, whatever. A few months went by. Then one evening I saw a flyer posted on our company's notice board. It was by the Human-Relief guys. It had a picture of a woman on a camel in a desert, wearing distinctly un-Indian clothes. It stated "Thank you for donating to the fund. Your money has made a big difference to the people in Afghanistan... blah blah blah...". Wait! What! AFGHANISTAN?!?! WTF? I told the management about the blunder. I explained to them that Afghanistan was not affected by the Tsunami. Afghanistan needed a lot of water and they would actually benefit from a Tsunami. India and Afghanistan are not the same countries! What to do now, khel khatam paisa hazam. They quietly removed the flyer from the notice board.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Hilarious. Really? Thats what happens when those chicks head the donation team. Tu kyon nahi gaya donation committee pe? Edgerton ko bolta to tuzhe head bana dete.

Rohan said...

Dude..that was rather unfortunate, but hilariously narrated..you have a very distinct style and since I've met you, it does seem very close to how you actually converse. Well done! Keep writing!:)

Pulkit said...

hey Rohan, how are you man. Didn't know you read this. Thanks for the encouragement brother.

Anonymous said...

i call bullshit on this one... seinfeld se uthaya saale ne!

Pulkit said...

Bala, I call bullshit on your existence.